The BBC's Alan Johnston says Palestinians from Deir al-Balah found a desolate and chaotic scene as the streamed into the nearby Kfar Darom settlement.

The Israelis smashed most things before they left, he says, but Palestinians have been scavenging through the rubble - retrieving wood, metal and broken pipes.

Israel will retain control over the territory's air and sea space and, at least temporarily, all its borders.

The Israelis say they have to prevent militant groups smuggling in weapons but the Palestinians say that as long as Israel controls all Gaza's links with the outside world, the occupation will continue.

The Palestinian Authority says it will continue to insist on total freedom of movement between Gaza and Egypt - otherwise, they add, the Israeli occupation of Gaza will not have really ended.